


You're Gonna Carry That Weight

by DarchangelSkye



Category: Across the Universe (2007)
Genre: 1960s, Brother-Sister Relationships, Community: hc_bingo, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Gen, Hospitals, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Vietnam War, Wordcount: 500-1.000, spot the extra Beatles reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-02
Updated: 2014-08-02
Packaged: 2018-02-11 10:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2065371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarchangelSkye/pseuds/DarchangelSkye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>HC Bingo 2014 Square: combat. Lucy's first visit to Max in the hospital since his return from Vietnam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Gonna Carry That Weight

"Max Carrigan?"

_Max! Max, duck!_

His eyes flew open, not that it made a difference, everything was still fuzzy. Too much haze, too many bright lights, too many faces he didn't know...

"You have a visitor, Max."

Blink, blink. Visitor? Well, least that meant he was still breathing, right?

“Yeah…okay.” He doubted anyone would notice if he shut his eyes again, and his world was silent save for pained groans and approaching footfalls.

“Oh, Max…”

_Max, you gotta get up! They’re getting’ closer!_

Goddammit, they couldn’t just leave him here, he didn’t want to be here in the first place-

The snapping open of his eyes again rang in time with a mental shotgun blast, and for a moment he thought they’d actually let him into Heaven. Sure had lovely faces greeting you.

The lovely face bit her lip and lay a soft hand on what Max now remembered as the bandage around his head. And he also remembered once seeing the lovely face’s owner in pigtails and overalls, then tie-dyed dresses, now cream-colored cardigans.

“Baby sis is all grown up,” Max croaked and tried reaching for Lucy’s hand.

“I didn’t think you’d live to see it,” she whispered and rubbed a thumb in her brother’s palm.

Max took a shallow breath that still rattled his chest and head. “Where…where’s Mom and Dad?”

Lucy swallowed and briefly squeezed her eyes shut, not that it stopped a tear from rolling over. “They’re not…she said she couldn’t stand…”

“Jesus Christ,” Max whispered, not minding the dirty look from Father Mackenzie at the next bedside.

“I know, Max, I know…” Lucy set down the purse that apparently had been weighing down her shoulder at the foot of the bed, and Max could just barely see it stuffed to the brim with papers and pamphlets.

“No, Luc, you don’t have any idea-“ He propped himself on his palms to attempt sitting up straighter, but a bullet of pain ricocheted up his spine and he fell back once more, the impact of falling into so many mud puddles. ”Do you know-“ He pointed a finger and jabbed it around in the air for emphasis, the only way he knew how to move in his pain. “You know they roll us out in the ‘rec room’ every day ‘front of the TV- nothing but news 24/7, and they’re not even showing the half of what’s really going on-“

_Jesus Christ, you guys smell that? Is that even human?_

“But I _do_ know, Max.” She fiddled with the clasp of her purse, an old nervous habit he found himself remembering as well. “All those people, the villages, there’s no need for us to be over there but nobody listens-“ She breathed in and squeezed her brother’s hand. “I’m sorry, Max. You don’t need to hear me rant.”

“You didn’t lie, baby sis.” He coughed, couldn’t hit his chest because that would fucking hurt, and found himself wanting to give his right arm for a cold beer and a hot girl. “There’s kids over there- goddamn _kids_ \- running through the streets, crying for their moms, begging us not to shoot ‘em-“ Another painful breath and his voice dropped to a whisper. Christ, where was that nurse with the painkiller? “Even if I’d signed up for this bullshit, Luc, I wasn’t expecting all that.”

“That’s what we’re trying to get them to listen to,” her voice was just as quiet as she continued fiddling with the clasp.

Max fell back against his pillow, the sterile white ceiling filling his vision. Better than flashes of gunfire. “Good luck with that,” he rasped. ”Their agenda ain’t ours.”

“You sound just like Jude.”

If Max wasn’t out of his gourd in pain, he would’ve sworn there was a bristle in his sister’s voice at that. “Where is that little bloke, anyway?”

Silence that could’ve been filled by another bristle. “I don’t know. Everybody- everything’s changed, everybody’s scattered everywhere-“ Lucy rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand just like when she was still in pigtails and had skinned her knee. “Pretty sure Prudence is the happiest of us now. And look where she was before.”

“Yeah…” Max sighed and had shut his eyes about halfway when the clattering of a window shade sent him and about seven other guys bolting up in their beds, three of them making the most inhuman noises.

_They’re coming!_

“Sorry…” The younger nurse sheepishly stepped away from the shade even if it was still tangled. 

“Jesus…” Max clutched to his collar and felt that Lucy was already holding his free (clammy) hand, not saying a word.

Even if nobody else was listening to her, she was still right.

“Luc…you don’t mind staying here ‘til whenever the hell I go back to sleep, right?”

She leaned over with the most chaste of kisses to his forehead, like mothers who cared and who could actually stand to see...

“Of course not.”


End file.
